Some students have reported that, for the past week, the tap water has tasted like metal.
Hanover Water Department official Dylan McDermott said the department — which provides water for the town, including the College — is “evaluating their treatment process” to determine if it is contributing to the change in taste. The department also tested the water for metals on June 1, he said. He could not confirm when the test results would be available.
McDermott said it is “fairly normal” for water taste to “change with the seasons” due to changing water temperatures. However, the department began investigating after it received a complaint from Bernice A. Ray Elementary School about the taste of the water last week. The elementary school’s operations director could not be reached for comment.
Julia Allos ’27 said she first noticed the water tasted “like iron” last week when she drank from a water fountain in Baker-Berry Library and later from the tap water in Lodge Hall. She said she also noticed the taste in her water at Murphy’s restaurant.
Allos said she bought a gallon of water to keep in her room for drinking but still notices the iron smell when showering or brushing her teeth.
“Yesterday I was washing my face and gagging from the smell,” she said.
Owen O’Brien ’28 said he noticed that the water has tasted “kind of metallic and just weird” for the last two weeks, even though he filters tap water with a Brita filter. He added that because he lives on the fourth floor of South Massachusetts Hall, it is a “hassle” to fill his water bottle at the purified water dispenser in the basement, which he said tastes normal.
“If I’m in a pinch and want to fill up my water bottle late at night or early morning, I don’t want to go all the way downstairs,” he said. “That blows.”
Ciara McCrory ’28 said she first noticed the “metallic” taste of the water, particularly in the water fountains in academic buildings, at the beginning of last week. She said she purchased water flavoring to conceal the metallic taste.
“It [previously] just tasted like pretty good quality water, but now when I taste it, it’s metallic or flat, and it leaves a really bad aftertaste in your mouth,” she said. “I literally couldn’t stomach drinking the water straight in the past week.”
Sarah Johnson ’28 said she first noticed the change last Thursday at the Class of 1953 Commons. Then, when she filled her water in the bathroom sink in McCulloch Hall — which she said she does often — it tasted like “straight iron,” she explained. She went to the Brace Commons purified water machine on May 30 and found that the water there was also “undrinkable.”
“When I first drank it, I thought my mouth was bleeding,” she said. “When I shower as well, the whole shower will smell really badly of blood or metal.”
Johnson said she has started using her dining dollars to purchase bottled water.
“I’ve tried everywhere on campus — the water all tastes bad, so I can’t really use any of my own water,” she explained. “I have to buy it.”
Some local restaurants said they have not noticed changes in the water taste or heard complaints about tap water they serve or have available for customers. Umpleby’s Bakery Cafe co-owner Charles Umpleby wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that the glass of Hanover tap water he drank on June 1 “tastes the same as it always does.”
“We haven’t received any feedback from our customers that I am aware of regarding any change in taste of the coffee or espresso drinks that we make using Hanover water,” he wrote. “Nor have we received any feedback about the taste of the drinking water we put out for our customers to have on a self-serve basis, which is also Hanover tap water.”
Julia Allos ’27 is a former Mirror writer for The Dartmouth. She was not involved in writing or editing this article.
Iris WeaverBell ’28 is a reporter and editor. She is from Portland, Ore., and is majoring in economics and minoring in public policy.
